Black America Timeline

SINCE THE MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY, THERE HAS BEEN AN UNDERCURRENT OF POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE AMONG AFRICAN AMERICANS.
  • 2016

    Black voters display Diminishing support for Hillary Clinton

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  • 2012

    The Democratic Party rejects an alliance with independents

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  • 2008

    Fulani leads “Who decided Hillary was best for the Black Community?” campaign challenging the Democratic Party’s support of Hillary Clinton over insurgency of Barack Obama, who reaches out to all Americans in his successful U.S. Presidential bid to become the first African American elected to the White House. Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney also runs as the Green Party’s presidential candidate this year.

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  • 2001-2009

    Michael Bloomberg is elected Mayor of New York City running as a fusion candidate on the Independence Party and Republican Party lines and supports non-partisan electoral reforms.

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  • 2000

    The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies notes a discernible shift among African Americans away from the Democratic Party

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  • 1996

    The Black Reformers Network is created by Dr. Fulani

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  • 1992

    Fulani runs for a second time for U.S. President as an independent

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  • 1984

    After garnering three and a half million votes, Rev. Jesse Jackson is denied the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

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  • 1987

    Black voters in Chicago challenge the Democratic Party by creating their own party

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  • 1980

    Black nationalists and socialists from across the nation

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  • 1979

    African Americans in New York City help to form a multi-racial independent political party

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  • 1972

    The National Black Political Convention meets in Gary, Indiana

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  • 1968

    Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. organizes the Poor People’s Campaign in Washington, D.C., to demand economic justice for the poor.

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  • 1964

    Black sharecropper and civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hammer gives an impassioned plea for black voting rights at the Democratic National Convention

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  • 1960

    African Americans form the Afro-American Party in Alabama

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  • 1952

    A number of African Americans run on third-party tickets

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  • 1943

    Benjamin J. Davis, Jr. is elected for the first of three times to the New York City Council

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  • 1939

    Over 5,000 African Americans join the Communist Party in major northern cities

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  • 1924

    Du Bois urges a vote for Robert La Follette

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  • 1912

    African American historian and journalist W.E.B. Du Bois initially builds a black base in the Progressive Party

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  • 1904

    George Edwin Taylor becomes the first African American to run for U.S. President

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  • 1890

    Black Populists, such as Walter A. Pattillo and John B. Rayner, work with white Populists to help to challenge Democratic Party rule in the South.

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  • 1860

    Frederick Douglass joins independent political efforts to opposes the Democratic Party’s pro-slavery stance

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  • 1840

    African Americans calling for the immediate abolition of slavery

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